Monday 1 Mar 21
Monday 1 Mar 21
I got up at 8:30 and after letting the dogs out and securing everything I drove back to Burger King. While I was having my first cup of coffee and updating my budget Mr Neel came in the store and I invited him to sit with me. We had another nice conversation for an hour or so. He told me some of his experiences working on heavy equipment. His shop crew consisted of approximately 20 men. They had a truck that had all their tools and spare parts. They would generally set up shop in a rocky area to prevent their welding operations from accidentally starting fires. He told me of an occasion when the company bought around 20 Dodge Cargo Vans and then decided they needed to put receiver hitches on them to pull utility trailers. The Dodge vans were of unibody construction and were not designed for hitches. He made subframes from angle iron and welded then to the unibody. Roadtreks of the 90s were built from either Dodge or Chevy one ton vans. I actually like the looks of the Dodge vans over the Chevrolet vans but the lack of receiver hitch capability makes the Chevy a better choice. People who have fashioned hitches on their Dodge vans have experienced separation of the body seams.
When we were leaving he was heading to an auto repair shop to get the rear axle seal replaced. In his younger days he would have done it himself I'm sure.
Once in the RT I made some oats for breakfast with toast and a half of grapefruit. After breakfast I updated my budget in the RT since I was not able to do so while having coffee. For the month of February I was about $800 over budget. The major over expenditure was the $1900 I had to pay for 2019 State Taxes.
I drove back to the other side of the bridge which is the island side. There I took the dogs down to the channel and we spent about an hour there. Back at the RT I made a ham and cheese sandwich for lunch.
After lunch I unloaded the kayak and took it down to the channel. I rowed to the southern end of the channel and out into the mouth of the lake. I rowed past the marina looking for big sailboats but didn't see one sailboat.
I just drifted around a bit then rowed up the channel until I rowed under the bridge. I finally rowed back where I had put in. I carried the kayak back the the RT and proceeded to load it back on the top of the RT. I strapped the back down in a different manner than before which was easier. Securing the front left side proved to be the most difficult. The front straps actually hook on the inside lip of the cockpit. This is necessary to prevent the kayak from rubbing the swamp cooler. Reaching the from the left side of the RT is impossible. I finally was able to connect it on the right side of the RT standing on the third passenger's seat them was able to slide it into position from the left side of the RT. There are 3 straps, two in the front and one in the back that positions the kayak correctly above the evaporative cooler. The cooler actually sticks up inside the cockpit of the kayak. It took me a while to find a kayak with a cockpit wide enought to clear the swamp cooler. After it is positioned there are two additional straps that criss cross over the top to hold it down. It is a bit of a pain to load and I'm always trying to come up with an easier way.
After the kayak was loaded I walked down to the bridge and had fish and chips with a Full Moon beer. I really like that place.
After dinner as I was walking back to the RT I noticed a paddle wheel boat that had not been there before. There were some people on the dock and as I was checking it out a man asked me to come aboard and he would tell me all about it. It was once a barge in the Mississippi River. It was cut into longitude so that it can be shipped across the country where it was rewelded. It had been on the Lake in previous years for the apparently it had gotten into disrepair and it had just undergone a major renovation. Today it was moved from a dry dock to the dock that had been especially built for it close to the bridge. I went on board and checked out pretty much every corner of the boat and was pretty impressed. There was a bar on the upper deck and the 12 or so people on board were all pretty intoxicated. I went up into the wheelhouse and shortly later a couple of ladies joined me. One of the ladies reminded me of my first true love. She had the same body shape and her hair even resembled hers. Her name was Tracy and she was a traveling nurse. I think her friend was from the area. I don't know if they were friends or they had just met. Like I said everyone on the boat was pretty intoxicated including Tracy and her friend. After a while the boat owner Keith came up to the wheelhouse as well and explained a little more about the boat. That it would possibly be taking people on dinner cruises within the next couple of months. It still needed to be certified by the Coast Guard. He said the boat was worth probably 1.5 million dollars and with the business it would be worth two million. It was an impressive boat and I hope that it works out for him. He said the boat was worth probably 1.5 million dollars and with the business it would be worth two million.
Back at the RT I secured everything and drove about 30 miles south of town and Park at a pull-out for the night. I enjoyed my 4 days at Lake Havasu City and plan to come back in the future.